


Fire Lily

by allvilelysunk



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-08-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:55:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26134582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allvilelysunk/pseuds/allvilelysunk
Summary: A young Princess Izumi has an accident. Fire Lord Zuko and Druk teach her a lesson.
Relationships: Druk & Izumi (Avatar), Druk & Zuko (Avatar), Izumi & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 137





	Fire Lily

Fire Lord Zuko was having a pleasant dream about feeding oversized turtleducks with his wife and daughter when a sharp pain in his scalp roused him from slumber.

“Ow!” He shot up from his desk, where he’d laid his head for only a moment in the middle of his tiresome work and managed to fall asleep by accident. As he turned around to identify the assailant who pulled his hair so rudely, he scowled and rubbed at his scalp. Behind him stood Druk, who was now approximately the size of an adolescent polar bear dog, with a look of genuine concern creasing his scaly face.

“Oh, come _on_ ,” Zuko whined, entirely undignified. “This better be good. What is it, Druk?”

On cue, Druk turned around and took flight from the room, forcing a still drowsy Zuko to race through the corridors behind him. If Druk had woken him for anything less than a dire emergency, Zuko swore he wouldn’t allow him inside the palace for a week. (Zuko would cave on day three after being subjected to Druk’s uncannily effective puppy eyes, but that was a problem for future Zuko, not current Zuko.) He was already flying within the palace walls, a major no-no at his size, as it was.

Soon, even a sleep deprived Zuko could glean that Druk was leading him toward the palace gardens, where he and Princess Izumi were wont to play with each other while Zuko and Fire Lady Mai were busy with their day-to-day duties. With this realization came a sudden flood of anxiety when Zuko heard Izumi’s cries; any residual drowsiness on his part was banished by a surge of adrenaline, and he picked up speed until he and Druk rushed toward Izumi’s sobbing form side by side.

“Oh, no,” Zuko muttered. His hands thrust toward her as he came to kneel beside her in the grass, and he quickly scooped her up into his arms. Druk, honorary big brother that he was, curled his body protectively around them both.

“Izumi, are you okay? Are you hurt?” Even as he asked, he began to check her body for injuries and quickly discovered the source of Izumi’s distress: the unmistakable, angry red of a burn on her lower left arm. It was a shallow burn, hardly even worth treating beyond an ointment to soothe the pain, but Zuko’s heart ached for her nonetheless. Just to hear her weep was enough to bring tears to his own eyes.

Try as she might to respond coherently, Izumi could do nothing but heave and hiccup through her tears, and while Zuko held her flush to his chest he immediately ruled out Druk as the culprit. The last time he’d accidentally burned anyone was before Izumi was born, and the care and gentleness he showed with Zuko’s daughter was second only to Zuko and Mai themselves. As there were no lit fires in the garden and no sign of any intruders (Druk would have without a doubt fried anyone who dared attempt to harm Izumi in his presence), this could only mean one thing.

Gazing into Izumi’s face only broke his heart again, but Zuko weathered the anguish. He smoothed Izumi’s hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear, wiped away her hot tears with the pad of his thumb, and asked in a soft voice, “Did you firebend?”

At only four years old, Izumi was rather young to have produced her first flame. Zuko thought back to the first time his sister firebent. Princess Azula firebent long before Zuko did, learning her first katas at five while Zuko could do little more than produce smoke at seven. Now thirty five, Zuko had (mostly) outgrown any insecurity about being a late bloomer, and he felt nothing but pride that his young daughter was already so gifted with the flame. But before he got ahead of himself, he had a burn to which to attend.

Izumi sniffled, her cries waning now that her father had come to her rescue. “Y-yes. It was an accident, Papa.”

“I know, I know,” Zuko soothed. He crossed his legs underneath him, robes fanning out in his wake, and gathered his daughter into his lap. “It’s gonna be okay. We’ll get you a salve for that burn and the pain will go away before you know it.”

With Izumi secure in his embrace, they cuddled for a little while longer in relative silence as Izumi cried out the rest of her tears. Eventually, Zuko planted a kiss on the top of her head and rose from the grass. Their gradual stroll to the infirmary began, Zuko carrying Izumi and Druk waddling behind them.

“Papa,” Izumi said, her lilting voice more even now that her crying had ebbed, “I don’t wanna firebend.”

Zuko lifted his eyebrow and studied her features as he walked. “Why not?”

“It hurt me.”

“Aw, baby,” the Fire Lord cooed. His arms squeezed around her in a tender hug. “The next time you firebend, you’ll have an instructor with you who knows what they’re doing. They won’t let you hurt yourself. And once you learn how to firebend the right way, you’ll never hurt yourself doing it again.”

Izumi returned her father’s embrace, her chin perched on his shoulder. “Okay,” she said simply. “Will I be as good as you, Papa?”

Zuko laughed. “At this rate, you’ll be even better than me.”

Izumi gasped, drawing back from Zuko’s shoulder and meeting his gaze with wide, golden eyes. “Really?”

“Yes, _really_ ,” he reaffirmed. “But I want you to know something, Izumi, and I never want you to forget it. Your firebending isn’t the only worthy thing about you. You’re so smart and kind and considerate and loving. Those things are way more important to me than how powerful your firebending is. Even if you never produce another flame again, I’ll always be so, _so_ proud of you. And if I ever make you feel inadequate, I want you to tell me.”

With all the charm of an adorable child (which, naturally, she was), Izumi tilted her head as she tried to get her lips around the “big” word. “In… _indadicate_?”

“ _In-a-de-quate._ It means not good enough. You’ll always be good enough for me, no matter what.” Zuko kissed her rosy cheek.

Izumi giggled sweetly and kissed his cheek in return. “You’ll always be good enough for me too!”

The smile that curved his lips then was radiant, brimming with paternal adoration but ghosted almost untraceably by his most omnipresent fear. His own father was wasting away in the dungeons below their feet, his sins against his children so grievous that they revealed themselves upon Zuko’s scarred face and within Azula’s tormented mind. With such a wretched example to look to, how could Zuko aspire to anything but failure? Zuko loved Izumi so fiercely that he could scarcely comprehend Ozai’s behavior at all; the moment she was born, Zuko’s ire at his father’s unconscionable actions flared hundredfold, and it took all his restraint not to storm into Ozai’s prison cell and eradicate his existence altogether. But what if Ozai had once loved he and Azula with the same ferocity that Zuko loved Izumi now?

Fire Lord Zuko sighed. “I hope so.”

* * *

They left the infirmary together ten minutes later with Izumi’s minor injury properly cleaned and bandaged. Druk awaited them outside the entrance to the infirmary—having been instructed to wait outside by the healers, Druk was understandably irritated—and his very pronounced pout made both Zuko and Izumi laugh, though it quickly dissipated at the sight of his two friends.

“Papa! I wanna ride Druk!” Izumi demanded.

“You have to ask him, not me.” Zuko cast a sidelong glance at Druk with his eyebrow arched.

“Oh, right,” Izumi said. She turned to Druk, craning her neck up to meet his eyes. “Druk, can I ride you, please?”

Druk appeared to mull over the question for a moment before he lowered his head to the floor. Izumi quickly thanked him and clambered up his neck and onto his back.

“Yay!” the princess exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. Druk bore his fangs in a dracontine smile.

Following Zuko’s pointed reminder that flying within the palace walls was strictly prohibited, Izumi and Druk chattered away—well, Izumi chattered while Druk gave a guttural huff or grumble to indicate that he was listening—as they strode back to the gardens. The occasional servant rushed past, all varying levels of surprised to see a fairly large, endangered reptile ridden by a young girl even after this long, but this wing of the palace was for the most part blessedly empty. Zuko had planned to get right back to his work once Izumi’s injury was taken care of, but he decided as they returned outside that work could wait. He had something he wanted to show his daughter.

Just as Druk poised himself to take flight, Zuko stopped him. “Wait just a second. I want to do something before you two run off.”

Zuko reached up to assist Izumi off Druk’s back, then set her down in front of Druk’s face.

“Izumi, look at Druk. He’s one of only a few of his kind. He’s the first dragon born in at least a hundred years. And, as you know, he’s a firebending master.”

Izumi nodded, wide-eyed. “Is Druk gonna be my firebending teacher?”

Zuko chuckled. Druk seemed amused as well. “Well, you can learn a lot from him, but I think having a human teacher to start off with is a better idea. Makes communication a little easier.” He paused to pat Izumi’s head affectionately. “But, my point is that Druk never had a firebending teacher. Firebending is natural to him; it’s as easy as breathing. But humans are different. Dragons never doubt themselves, but humans do. So, whenever you’re afraid that you can’t do something, I want you to be like a dragon.”

Zuko lowered himself onto the grass and once again crossed his legs beneath him. Druk, too, sat on his hind legs, and Izumi imitated her father.

“You know what? I think Druk _should_ give you your first lesson.” Zuko and Druk exchanged a glance, and then Zuko closed his eyes and tilted his head back ever so slightly. “The source of firebending is the breath. The purest form of firebending requires proper breath control. When I was your age, we were taught to channel our firebending through rage, and I think that has a lot to do with why I struggled so much with it when I was young. _Never_ make that mistake, Izumi. Sometimes, rage can be a good motivator, but it can never be the source of your bending or else you’ll be powerless once your rage runs out.

“I learned the truth from dragons. Druk’s parents, actually.” Zuko smiled fondly at the memory. The resplendent display of swirling fire still danced behind his eyes whenever he shut them. “Druk’s going to show you how to breathe fire.”

“Ooooh,” Izumi sighed, spellbound.

With all eyes now fixed on him, Druk flared his nostrils and took a long, deep breath. His chest rose slowly, the air building in his great lungs. Then, his breath held for a while, just long enough to spark flames from the oxygen. Finally, with faint plumes of smoke rising from his nostrils, Druk lifted his head to the sky and unleashed a safe but considerable burst of fire.

“You saw that?” The question was rhetorical; he knew well that Izumi had been enraptured the entire time. “Now you and I are going to do the same thing together.”

Izumi started to protest, but she remembered her father’s lesson: be like a dragon. Squaring her shoulders, she nodded.

“Just do what Druk did. Take a slow, deep breath and feel the heat build inside your lungs. Then hold it, and release.”

Father and daughter closed their eyes as they inhaled. Warmth blossomed within Zuko’s chest, the air kindling for his fire, and with his exhale came a puff of flame. When he looked to Izumi, he grinned with immeasurable pride to see her do the same.

Izumi squeaked after the flame disappeared, then leapt from the ground and barreled headlong into her father. “I did it! I did it!”

Zuko fell backward into the grass, laughing wholeheartedly as they embraced. “You did it!” he echoed. “Izumi, I’m so proud of you! You were just like Druk.”

Not to be excluded from a cuddle pile, Druk rested his snout against them both and exhaled sharply enough to rustle their hair.

Izumi reached out and laid a small hand against Druk’s nose. “Thank you, Druk,” she said sincerely. “You’re a really good teacher.”

“Okay, I won’t keep you from playtime any longer,” Zuko conceded. He sat up, lifted Izumi from his lap, and stood. “Just be careful, alright? Don’t fly too far.” At this point, Zuko trusted Druk to keep Izumi safe, but he couldn’t help his reminders. More intimately than ever, Zuko understood the way Uncle Iroh fretted over him.

With a joyful squeal, Izumi once again climbed onto Druk’s back. “Bye, Papa!”

“Bye, Fire Lily.”

Druk launched from the ground and soared gracefully into the heavens.


End file.
